Offered to take a friend... now can't afford it

[Teacher03]

I'm sorry you had to cancel your trip. Hopefully sunnier days are ahead, and you can go (with your niece) without any worries. Good luck.

 

[cheshireqt]

What a bummer about having to cancel the trip. Hope things work out better than expected and you are able to take that trip sometime in the future.
Until I saw your last post I thought the idea of driving to Disneyland sounded like a good option for a shorter trip and cost savings.

 

[TnTWalter]

OP here. I actually haven't been on the boards for a while because I was dealing with some work issues. We were really busy this week.
1. To answer some questions of the many naysayers that we have here....
No, I am not lying to get out of taking my neice. We love her dearly. Our original plan was that dn would pay more a bigger part of the cost. This turned out to be too big of a burden for them, so I offered to help out more.

2. I didn't want to go without her at all. We were trying to get some ideas for what to do. Sometimes you get put in hard spots and need a few ideas for how to handle it. Once you hear a few ideas, it helps to process some of your options. That's all I was looking for.

3. We have decided to cancel the trip altogether this year and try again another time. My dh came home earlier this week to tell me that his company is now being sold and he will most likely completely lose his job when it does sell. They had 2 people coming in this week to look at buying it. We decided that the responsible thing to do as parents is to put that money into savings so that if a job loss does come, we will be able to pay our bills while he looks for a new job. As disappointing as that will be to both my dn and my dd, I also think it sends the wrong message about responsibility when you go on big vacations when you are looking at losing your job. Sometimes bad things happen and you have to adjust to the new situation.

I think it is sad that many times on these boards people are just looking for some advice or someone to listen to them and peoplel get so judgemental. I don't understand why so many on here get the "holier than thou" attitude. We are just people trying to make the best decisions that we can. Of course we all try to be good responsible parents. We don't need everyone else telling us that we are not when they don't understand the whole situation anyway.

Please try to see that you received lots of good advice and yes some naysayers especially when no update was given from you [which happens sometimes and frustrates some that tried to help].....but hopefully you'll take the good out of this thread as well.

I think you're doing the [unfortunately] right thing. And don't rule out Windsor Hills for a future trip. We LOVED it. $450 for the week for our family of 5 in a THREE bedroom....so wonderful.

Best of luck.

 

[pyrxtc]

I disagree with the majority of posters and think that you should lay it all out to your niece and then still go, even without her if her parents don't/can't pay for her. Sometimes things happen and it doesn't mean that no one can have fun. It's not like they are leaving one of their children home and favoring another. the niece was invited when you had more money coming in and maybe your family already knows you have less money now and have been thinking about this as well. Talk it over with niece and her parents, maybe they have a solution ? Just explain that you can't afford the extra person this time.

 

[shortbun]

Tell the girls to get some small jobs and start earning the money-babysitting, mowing lawns, fast food, walking dogs -whatever they have to do to earn the $1000. Two enterprising young women should be able to come up with that in 6 months.

 

[cm8]

OP here. I actually haven't been on the boards for a while because I was dealing with some work issues. We were really busy this week.
1. To answer some questions of the many naysayers that we have here....
No, I am not lying to get out of taking my neice. We love her dearly. Our original plan was that dn would pay more a bigger part of the cost. This turned out to be too big of a burden for them, so I offered to help out more.

2. I didn't want to go without her at all. We were trying to get some ideas for what to do. Sometimes you get put in hard spots and need a few ideas for how to handle it. Once you hear a few ideas, it helps to process some of your options. That's all I was looking for.

3. We have decided to cancel the trip altogether this year and try again another time. My dh came home earlier this week to tell me that his company is now being sold and he will most likely completely lose his job when it does sell. They had 2 people coming in this week to look at buying it. We decided that the responsible thing to do as parents is to put that money into savings so that if a job loss does come, we will be able to pay our bills while he looks for a new job. As disappointing as that will be to both my dn and my dd, I also think it sends the wrong message about responsibility when you go on big vacations when you are looking at losing your job. Sometimes bad things happen and you have to adjust to the new situation.

I think it is sad that many times on these boards people are just looking for some advice or someone to listen to them and peoplel get so judgemental. I don't understand why so many on here get the "holier than thou" attitude. We are just people trying to make the best decisions that we can. Of course we all try to be good responsible parents. We don't need everyone else telling us that we are not when they don't understand the whole situation anyway.

, I am sorry to hear about your husband's job, I hope that you will be able to take your trip next year........, that your husband will find another job soon!!

 

[swilshire]

Back in November, we offered to take my neice with us on our next WDW trip (scheduled for Sept. 2010). This is my dd best friend and they wanted to celebrate their 16th birthday together at WDW. At the time, jobs were going really well and the money situation looked really good for a return trip.

Fast forward to now my dh job has cut his hours almost in 1/2 and the money is really tight. We really just can't afford to pay an extra $1000 to take dn now. What should we do? It costs us an extra $740 for her tickets and a bigger room to fit her, plus the airfare. I don't want her to feel like we don't love her, but this is more than we can afford right now. I just don't know what to do. we don't go into debt for trips, so a credit card is out of the questions. Anyone have some helpful advice?

This is really hard because her family is really poor and she would never get this opportunity with them. uggh.

I haven't read the responses, but if money is really tight and expected to stay that way, I'd postpone the trip. It would be a lesson to both of the kids about disappointments in life. If you do go, however, you should take the other child. JMHO.

Sheila

 

[hentob]

I haven't read the responses, but if money is really tight and expected to stay that way, I'd postpone the trip. It would be a lesson to both of the kids about disappointments in life.

Good advice I think it is a lesson for adults too. If you don't have an extra $740 to your name and your income has been cut in half, it really is not a good idea to go on vacation.

I wish the OP luck. I am glad she decided to do the intelligent thing and cancel her trip

 

[DawnM]

I have not read this entire thread so forgive me if ideas have been mentioned before.

Could you change the trip to drive to Disneyland instead? Would that change the amount to a more doable amount?

I would be very upset if I felt my child had been promised something and then it was taken away and I found out the family went anyway without my child.

There has to be a way to keep your promise and make this work, even if it means budgeting the trip differently.

Dawn

BTW: DH got an almost 20% paycut this year so I do understand having to change the way you do things.

 

[happygirl]

OP, I'm sorry about your hubby job I hope things will turn around for you